English Literature MCQ (Multiple Choice Questions) - Schoolingaxis.com

English Literature MCQ (Multiple Choice Questions)

 Que- Don Juan and "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" are broken into sections called______________? 

a. Cantos  

b. Stanzas  

c. Lines  

d. Chapters 


Answer- Cantos


Que- Shelley's "Ode to Psyche" is narrated by __________________? 

a. Psyche  

b. Cupid  

c. The author of the poem  

d. Shelley's childhood self 


Answer- The author of the poem


Que- Which of the following concepts are NOT elements of neo-classicism ? 

a. Optimism  

b. A sense of man being imperfect  

c. Order and reason  

d. A belief that art is primarily intellectual 


Answer- Optimism


Que- Which event marked the defeat of Napoleon ? 

a. The execution of the King of France  

b. The battle at Waterloo  

c. The Reign of Terror  

d. Napoleon's coronation as Emperor of France 


Answer- The battle at Waterloo


Que- Which of the following statements would you most likely NOT see in a Romantic poem ? 

a. Truth is beauty …   

b. Truth is stranger than fiction …  

c. Familure acts are beautiful through love …  

d. A little learning is a dangerous thing… 


Answer- A little learning is a dangerous thing…


Que- The main thematic focus of "Ode on a Grecian Urn" is ____________________? 

a. The nature of death  

b. The French Revolution  

c. The relationship between truth and beauty  

d. The author's childhood experience 


Answer- The relationship between truth and beauty


Que- Which of the following was a key element or aspect of Romantic poetry ? 

a. Engagement with the natural world  

b. Rationality  

c. Emotional restraint  

d. Political conservatism 


Answer- Engagement with the natural world


Que- Which of the following poets would be least likely to explore the meaning of beauty or imagination in a poem ? 

a. Lord Byron  

b. Percy Shelley  

c. John Keats  

d. Samuel Taylor Coleridge 


Answer- Lord Byron


Que- One of the central themes of Wordsworth's "Peter Bell" is _________________? 

a. How nature can render someone good  

b. How nature can corrupt someone  

c. Eternal youth  

d. A dark voyage into madness 


Answer- How nature can render someone good


Que- The Romantic period is generally thought to have occurred between ________________? 

a. 1800 – 1900  

b. 1805 – 1827  

c. 1798 – 1832  

d. 1785 – 1825 


Answer- 1798 – 1832


Que- Which poet would most likely express an adherence to atheism in his writing ? 

a. William Wordsworth  

b. William Blake  

c. John Keats  

d. Percy Shelley 


Answer- Percy Shelley


Que- Elizabeth Fey refers to which poet as "a sort of poet-king Arthur" ? 

a. William Wordsworth  

b. William Blake  

c. Lord Byron  

d. Percy Shelley 


Answer- William Wordsworth


Que- Who referred to poets as "the unacknowledged legislators of the world" ? 

a. Lord Byron  

b. William Blake  

c. William Hazlitt  

d. Percy Shelley 


Answer- Percy Shelley


Que- Which poet would have been most likely to compose a poem examining his own childhood ? 

a. Percy Shelley  

b. John Keats  

c. William Wordsworth  

d. Samuel Taylor Coleridge 


Answer- William Wordsworth


Que- Many romantic poets regarded the natural world with a feeling of ________________? 

a. Awe and fascination  

b. Disinterest and disregard  

c. Resentment and disrespect  

d. Fear and horror 


Answer- Awe and fascination


Que- Which poet would be most likely to compose a poem and illustrations to accompany it ? 

a. Lord Byron  

b. Percy Shelley  

c. Samuel Taylor Coleridge  

d. William Blake 


Answer- William Blake


Que- In "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," who is the "he" referred to in the lines "A sadder and a wiser man\He rose the morrow morn." ? 

a. Life-in-Death  

b. The Ancient Mariner  

c. The Wedding Guest  

d. The ship's captain 


Answer- The Wedding Guest


Que- Which of the following phrases best describes the central goal of Imagist poets ? 

a. Emotional power achieved through suggestive visual images  

b. Exploration of philosophical paradoxes through visual images  

c. Clarity of expression through the use of precise visual images  

d. Inclusion of natural objects as symbols 


Answer- Clarity of expression through the use of precise visual images


Que- Many critics see similarities between the tenets of Futurism and which of the following political philosophies ? 

a. Marxism  

b. Fascism  

c. Democracy  

d. Libertarianism 


Answer- Fascism


Que- Which of the following features of Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess" make it classifiable as a Victorian poem ? 

a. It has a regular rhyme scheme (aa/bb/cc/dd…), which is sustained throughout the poem.  

b. It is primarily a narrative poem.  

c. It is concerned with conventional 19thcentury relations between a man and a woman.  

d. All of these answers 


Answer- All of these answers


Que- Complete the following sentence. Matthew Arnold's poem "Dover Beach" is illustrative of modernist poetry, because it________________? 

a. employs free verse.  

b. has an undertow of nihilism.  

c. is chauvinistic about British "exceptionalism."  

d. was composed between WW I and WW II. 


Answer- has an undertow of nihilism.


Que- Which of the following statements best characterizes the role played by Gertrude Stein in American modernism ? 

a. Stein was a crucially important figure in the Paris émigré community.  

b. Stein was primarily a muse for modernist poets.  

c. Stein was a proponent of low modernism.  

d. Stein was an opponent of vanguard trends. 


Answer- Stein was a crucially important figure in the Paris émigré community.


Que- Which of the following traditions was particularlyimportant in Hart Crane's modernist poetry ? 

a. French Classicism  

b. British Romanticism  

c. American Romanticism  

d. German Romanticism 


Answer- American Romanticism


Que- Which of the following statements best characterizes Randall Jarrell's 1945 poem "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" ? 

a. The poem contrasts the image of a child in its mother's womb with cruel devaluation of human life in wartime.  

b. The poem praises those technological achievements which protect human life in wartime.  

c. The poem uses images of the apocalypse to criticize the cruelty of war.  

d. The poem presents the war as a natural part of the perennial cycles of human history. 


Answer- The poem contrasts the image of a child in its mother's womb with cruel devaluation of human life in wartime.


Que- According to Professor Hammer, which of the following characteristics did Langston Hughes share with modernist poets like William Carlos Williams, Marianne Moore, Hart Crane, and Robert Frost ? 

a. Hughes was very conscious that he was an American poet, and this profoundly influenced his writing.  

b. Hughes wrote about the legacy of the American Civil War and its long-term cultural consequences.  

c. Hughes introduced new subject-matter and new language into poetry.  

d. Both A and C 


Answer- Both A and C


Que- WorldWar I drastically changed the political and cultural climate in Europe. Which of the following was NOT among the changes brought about by World War I ? 

a. Germany was defeated and blamed for causing the war.  

b. In the course of World War I, the Bolsheviks came to power in Russia.  

c. Successful parliamentary democracies were established throughout the continent and remained stable until the outbreak of World War II in 1939.  

d. By the end of the 1920s, almost every state that had participated in World War I faced an economic depression and political upheavals. 


Answer- Successful parliamentary democracies were established throughout the continent and remained stable until the outbreak of World War II in 1939.


Que- Which of the following traditions was an important influence on Louis Zukofsky's poetry ? 

a. American Romanticism  

b. British Neo-Classicism  

c. Kabalistic Judaism  

d. Taoism 


Answer- Kabalistic Judaism


Que- The first stanza of Countee Cullen's "A Brown Girl Dead" reads: "With two white roses on her breasts,/White candles at head and feet,/Dark Madonna of the grave she rests;/Lord Death has found her sweet." Which of the following statements accurately characterizes these lines ? 

a. These lines evoke Christian imagery to emphasize the dignity of the girl who died.  

b. These lines evoke Christian imagery to suggest that death erases racial divisions.  

c. These lines present the problem of racial prejudice in an ironic mode.  

d. Both A and B 


Answer- Both A and B


Que- One of the dominant themes in Wallace Stevens's poem "Sunday Morning" consists of the juxtaposition of nature against which set of cultural symbols ? 

a. The ideal of courtly love  

b. Elements of the Christian narrative of salvation  

c. The alchemical concept of the philosopher's stone  

d. The Renaissance concept of humanism 


Answer- Elements of the Christian narrative of salvation


Que- According to the literary critic, Paul Fussell, which of the following was a central trope of English poetry written during the Great War ? 

a. Patriotic imagery  

b. Irony  

c. Nihilism  

d. Apocalyptic imagery 


Answer- Irony


Que- Which of the following best characterizes the contrast between Gertrude Stein's poetry and Imagist poetry ? 

a. Stein experimented only with the sound qualities of language, whereas the Imagists focused on visual imagery.  

b. Stein experimented with language that skirted the edges of sense, whereas the Imagists sought precision and clarity of expression.  

c. Stein sought to combine classical poetic form with contemporary content, whereas the Imagists used traditional poetic subject matter but experimented with form.  

d. Stein sought precision and clarity in her poems, whereas the Imagists sought experimental forms that enhanced visual imagery. 


Answer- Stein experimented with language that skirted the edges of sense, whereas the Imagists sought precision and clarity of expression.


Que- Rupert Brooke's "The Soldier" opens with the following lines: "If I should die, think only this of me:/That there's some corner of a foreign field/That is for ever England." Which of the following statements best describes these lines and Brooke's poem as a whole ? 

a. These lines and the poem as a whole use both the political concept of a nation and the spiritual concept of eternity to give meaning to soldiers' deaths on the battlefield.  

b. These lines and the poem as a whole are primarily concerned with the extension of Britain's imperial power.  

c. These lines and the poem as a whole seek to directly express the horrors of war.  

d. These lines and the poem as a whole rely on assonance to magnify the critique of war expressed in the poem. 


Answer- These lines and the poem as a whole use both the political concept of a nation and the spiritual concept of eternity to give meaning to soldiers' deaths on the battlefield.


Que- According to Professor Hammer, Wallace Stevens's understanding of the imagination has most in common with which of the following literary traditions ? 

a. Imagism  

b. Classicism  

c. British Romanticism  

d. Vorticism 


Answer- British Romanticism


Que- Complete the following sentence. Professor Hammer argues that Ezra Pound's interest in fascism and his anti-Semitic views were likely an outcome of his______________? 

a. endorsement of Marxism.  

b. interest in ancient Rome.  

c. anti-capitalism.  

d. interest in Fourier's utopian socialist thought. 


Answer- anti-capitalism.


Que- What is the "double-bind" that African- American women poets encountered in the thirties and forties, according to Anthony Walton's essay ? 

a. Being overworked in menial jobs having to raise large families  

b. Being a subordinated woman in a male dominated culture and a member of a suppressed minority race in the middle of a dominant white culture  

c. Having little formal education with little access to publishers  

d. Being ignored by a traditional poetry reading public because what they wrote about was the travails of subsistence living 


Answer- Being a subordinated woman in a male dominated culture and a member of a suppressed minority race in the middle of a dominant white culture


Que- In Amy Lowell's imagist poem, "This Green Bowl," a handmade bowl is compared to a pond in the woods. Can one say that, as in Pound's "Cantos," this poem's dominant tone is impersonal? Why, or why not ? 

a. Yes, Lowell's detailed description of nature draws attention away from human realities.  

b. Yes, the lyrical voice in Lowell's poem seeks to express universal rather than individual experience.  

c. No, Lowell's poem is not impersonal; it addresses the maker of the bowl directly and speculates about his state of mind.  

d. No, even though Lowell strives for impersonal expression by borrowing poetic devices from Pound, she fails to accomplish this 


Answer- No, Lowell's poem is not impersonal; it addresses the maker of the bowl directly and speculates about his state of mind.


Que- Which of the following best describes the types of imagery used in Louis Zukofsky's poem, "A: Seventh Movement: There Are Different Techniques" ? 

a. Historic and contemporary imagery  

b. Kabalistic imagery  

c. Nationalist imagery  

d. Everyday imagery 


Answer- Historic and contemporary imagery


Que- Which of the following literary devices are present in Langston Hughes's poem "Ku Klux" ? 

a. Irony  

b. Allegory  

c. Oxymoron  

d. Alliteration 


Answer- Irony


Que- The poem "Dulce et Decorum Est" ends with the following lines: "My friend, you would not tell with such high zest/To children ardent for some desperate glory,/The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est/ Pro patria mori." Which of the following statements best describes these lines ? 

a. Brooke's inclusion of a quotation from Horace in these lines serves to emphasize the distance between the ideals ofWestern civilization and its realities.  

b. These lines suggest the author's anger and disillusionment with cultural norms which glorify war.  

c. In these lines, Brooke seeks to bridge the gap between individual experience and cultural norms and beliefs.  

d. All of the above 


Answer- All of the above


Que- Which of the following best describes the reasons why World War I had a profound impact on modern poetry ? 

a. The devastation wrought by World War I was so enormous that it put Europe's cultural and political norms and values into question.  

b. The mechanized killing, which took place on a massive scale during World War I, made it necessary to reflect about the effects of technological progress.  

c. World War I was the first global conflict where the distinction between combatants and civilians was erased, and this had a devastating effect on the European psyche.  

d. Both A and B 


Answer- Both A and B


Que- According to W.E.B. Dubois in his Atlantic Monthly essay, "The Strivings of the Negro People," what are some of the personal consequences for an African- American living in a racist society at the beginning of the 20th century ? 

a. Feeling like an outcast in your own house  

b. Becoming a stuttering sycophant just to survive  

c. Wrapping yourself in the armor of anger and resentment  

d. All of the above 


Answer- All of the above


Que- Violet Cristoforo was honored for collecting what kind of poetry in her anthology "May Sky" ? 

a. Love sonnets from the Nazi death camps  

b. American G.I. poetry from German prisoner of war camps  

c. Jewish dissident poetry from the gulags in Siberia  

d. Haiku poetry from the Japanese internment camps in the US 


Answer- Haiku poetry from the Japanese internment camps in the US


Que- Langston Hughes was among the most important figures of the Harlem Renaissance. Which of the following is an accurate characterization of his experiences before he published his first book ? 

a. He was a native New Yorker who did not travel much but who was keenly aware of New York's complexity and diversity.  

b. He moved to New York from Alabama and the stark contrast between these places deeply influenced his writing.  

c. He was born in Missouri and traveled extensively throughout the United States and the world before he moved to New York City.  

d. He spent most of his life in Washington, DC, moving to Harlem only after he gained literary fame. 


Answer- He was born in Missouri and traveled extensively throughout the United States and the world before he moved to New York City.


Que- Which of the following statements best characterizes the central questions faced by poetry after the Holocaust ? 

a. Is it possible for Romantic themes in poetry to be meaningful after the Holocaust?  

b. The horror of the Holocaust was inexpressible; how can poetry speak of what is inexpressible?  

c. Is there a relationship between poetry and rationality after the Holocaust?  

d. Is there a meaningful relationship between World War I poetry and World War II poetry? 


Answer- The horror of the Holocaust was inexpressible; how can poetry speak of what is inexpressible?


Que- In his essay "The Symbolism of Poetry," William Butler Yeats argues that which of the following is the purpose of rhythm ? 

a. To "amplify and clarify the indistinct emotions created by metaphorical symbols"  

b. To "prolong the moment of contemplation"  

c. To "counteract the forces of dispersal inherent in metaphorical language"  

d. To "make poetry new" 


Answer- To "prolong the moment of contemplation"


Que- Wilfred Owen's "Anthem for Doomed Youth" begins with the following lines: "What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?/ Only the monstrous anger of the guns./ Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle/Can patter out their hasty orisons." Which of the following statements best describes these lines ? 

a. These lines suggest that it was difficult to define patriotism during the Great War, but soldiers who died in battle provided the best example of patriotism.  

b. These lines suggest that the Great War lasted much longer than it should have.  

c. These lines equate humans with animals, and they anthropomorphize weapons to show a world where there is no place for human values.  

d. These lines represent a modern funeral dirge that mimics the rhythm of ancient Greek funeral dirges. 


Answer- These lines equate humans with animals, and they anthropomorphize weapons to show a world where there is no place for human values.


Que- Which of the following statements best characterizes the last two stanzas of Charles Baudelaire's symbolist poem "Correspondences" ? 

a. They describe the author's experiences as a young child.  

b. They use metaphors with subtle political connotations.  

c. They ascribe colors and sounds to scents, relying on a device known as synesthesia.  

d. They describe a scene in the countryside, which symbolizes the state of the author's soul. 


Answer- They ascribe colors and sounds to scents, relying on a device known as synesthesia.


Que- Which of the following events increased the appeal of communism among American intellectuals both black and white in the years between 1918 and 1939 ? 

a. The Great Depression  

b. Hitler's invasion of Poland in 1939  

c. The Russian Civil War  

d. World War I 


Answer- The Great Depression


Que- In his first lecture onWilliam Butler Yeats, Professor Hammer says that the young Yeats identified with King Goll. What does he mean by this ? 

a. Yeats's poetry was autobiographical, but he understood his life through the prism of myths and symbols; symbolism was therefore present in both Yeats's life and in his poetry. 

b. Yeats believed that each person was an instance of a general cultural type or symbol.  

c. The young Yeats wished to emphasize his identity as an English poet and draw attention away from his Irish heritage.  

d. Both A and B 


Answer- Both A and B


Que- Which of the following statements best characterizes the difference between Futurism and Vorticism ? 

a. Members of both movements were fascinated by speed and dynamism, but unlike the Futurists, Vorticists did not celebrate technology and industrialization.  

b. Futurism was a politically-inclined movement, whereas Vorticism was free of all political entanglements.  

c. Futurism lasted for several decades, whereas Vorticism was short-lived.  

d. Vorticists celebrated technology and industrialization, whereas Futurists explored impending cultural challenges regarding technology and industrialization. 


Answer- Members of both movements were fascinated by speed and dynamism, but unlike the Futurists, Vorticists did not celebrate technology and industrialization.

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